The present invention disclosed herein relates to a microchannel control technology, and more particularly, to a micro-valve structure and a lab-on-a-chip module which include a polymer actuator.
Recently, developments and applications of a microfluidic control technology, which controls the flow rate or the direction of a microfluid, continue to accelerate along with the advances in biosensor and semiconductor technologies. A trace amount of a component included in a biological fluid such as blood may be quantitatively or qualitatively detected by the microfluidic control technology. Therefore, the microfluidic control technology has become a core technology in the technical field of a biochip or a lab-on-a-chip (LOC).
A patterning technology enabling to form microchannels in desired shapes and a switching technology enabling to control the opening and closing of the microchannels have to be secured in order to control the microfluid. The patterning technology of the microchannel has become available due to the advances in a semiconductor manufacturing technology or a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology. The switching technology of the microchannel may be achieved through a microactuator using a piezoelectric device. Although the microactuator using the piezoelectric device provides high-reliability as well as being appropriate for mass production, it is difficult to be used in a point-of-care testing (POCT) device or a portable device due to its large power consumption and limitations in miniaturization.